The COoKIE Group
Communication, Organization of Knowledge, Information Ecosystems
What we Do
The COoKIE is an interdisciplinary Human-Computer Interaction research group focusing on Human-AI collaborative communication.
Our recent work touches on diverse technologies, including conversational agents, large language models, generative AI systems, and AI-based decision support systems. Seeking to advance Human-AI interaction design, we explore mechanisms driving the perceptions of different types of AI systems, such as trust, anthropomorphization, or perceived reliability to inform the system and algorithm design requirements for effective, efficient, and ethical AI.
Our Work is Supported by:
The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)
The Naver Corporation,
South Korea
The Faculty of Information,
University of Toronto, Canada
Data Sciences Institute,
University of Toronto, Canada
Current Research Areas
Human-Agent Communication
The growing complexity of intelligent systems creates a promising environment for the shift in a user experience paradigm: from pure human-system interaction to human-system communication and collaboration. This is further amplified by the increased popularity of entity-based system interfaces (artificial agents) and the integration of conversational user interfaces (CUI). The human-agent communication paradigm opens exciting opportunities to exploit a computer's unique abilities to complement humans. However, first, we need to understand the specifics of human-agent communication.
AI-Based Decision Support Systems (ADS)
AI-integrated decision-making support systems allow to augment and extend human capabilities, improving the quality and efficiency of decisions. These systems use AI to learn, remember, analyze, and reason based on large amounts of often complex data. The successful use of these features requires an understanding of how they can appropriately complement human processes. To address these questions, we explore what aspects of augmentation are required in different scenarios, how the outcomes should be communicated and explained (xAI), and how to properly calibrate and, if needed, repair trust in systems' performance.
Information Architecture for Conversational UI
The intuitive nature of Conversational User Interfaces (CUI), fashioned after natural human conversation, allows for convenient and fast input and can serve as a single-channel input for multiple services, devices, applications, and even environments. However, due to the absence of visual clues, affordances, and spatial organization, the use of CUI is associated with a decreased sense of control over the information dynamics. We explore the perceived “locations”, “structure“, and “paths” of the information shared through CUI, to inform the required information architecture.
Meet the Team
Dr. Anastasia Kuzminykh
Assistant Professor,
Faculty of Information,
Cross-ap. w. Computer Science, University of Toronto
Head of The COoKIE Group and the THAI RS
Rezvan Boostani
Ph.D. Student,
Faculty of Information,
University of Toronto
Agents for Financial Assistants for Older Adults
Anshuta Kulkarni
Master's Thesis Student,
Faculty of Information,
University of Toronto
Social Dynamics in Human-AI Communication
Peter Dushniku
Undergrad. Research Assist.,
Computer Science, Cognitive Science, Linguistics,
University of Toronto
Conversation in Human-AI Communication
Kelsey Stemmler
External Research Assist.,
Faculty of Information,
University of Toronto
Human-AI Alignment and Bias Identification in AI
Dr. Brennan Jones
Postdoctoral Fellow
2024-2025,
Faculty of Information,
University of Toronto
Memory and Long-Term Human-AI Collaboration
Christina Wei
Ph.D. Student,
Faculty of Information,
University of Toronto
Architecture of Human-AI Conversation
Janet Lu
Master's Thesis Student,
Faculty of Information,
University of Toronto
Conversational Agents for Co-Design Assistance
Rimsha Rizvi
Lab Coordinator,
Master's Research Assist.,
Faculty of Information,
University of Toronto
Fairness and Explainability in Human-AI Collaboration
Dr. Angeline Tsui
External Research Assist.,
Faculty of Information,
University of Toronto
Effects of AI Explainability on Human-AI Collaboration
Dr. Taha Hassan
Postdoctoral Fellow
2024-2025,
Faculty of Information,
University of Toronto
Reliability and Trust in Human-AI Collaboration
Omid Veisi
Ph.D Student,
Faculty of Information,
University of Toronto
Humanized AI in Human-AI Collaboration
Marco Chan
Master's Thesis Student,
Faculty of Information,
University of Toronto
AI Adoption in Professional Communication Settings
Kshitij Anand
Master's Reading Student,
Design Research Team,
Faculty of Information,
University of Toronto
Culturally Sensitive Conversational Agents
Shradha Anand
External Research Assist.,
Faculty of Information,
University of Toronto
Document Exploration with Conversational Interfaces
Manveer Kalirai
Ph.D. Student,
Prev. Master's Thesis,
Faculty of Information,
University of Toronto
Conversational Recommender Systems
Peter Appiahene
Ph.D Student,
Faculty of Information,
University of Toronto
Model Development for Human-AI Collaboration
Dakshata Shukla
Master's Research Assist.,
Faculty of Information,
University of Toronto
Agents For Female Health in Developing Regions
Dr. Senjuti Dutta
External Research Assist.,
Prev. Ph.D. Student
Faculty of Information,
University of Toronto
Evaluation of Models in Human-AI Collaboration
Paula Aoyagui
Ph.D Student,
Prev. Research Assistant,
Faculty of Information,
University of Toronto
Argumentative Strategies in Verbal Explainable AI
Harsh Kumar
Ph.D. Research Assistant,
Computer Science,
University of Toronto
Cog. & Behav. Impact of Human-AI Communication
Emily Su
Undergrad. Research Assist.,
Statistics and Computer Science, University of Toronto
Conversation in Human-AI Communication
Yuxin Xu
External Research Assist.,
Prev. Master's Thesis,
Faculty of Information,
University of Toronto
Sense of Ownership in Human-AI Collaboration
Nazar Ponochevnyi
Ph.D. Student,
Prev. Mitacs Research Intern, Computer Science,
University of Toronto
Developing Voice Interface for Data Visualization
Nathan Laundry
Ph.D. Research Assistant,
Computer Science,
University of Toronto
AI Assistance for Human Productivity
Huayin Luo
Undergrad. Research Assist.,
Data Science, Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto
Backhanneling in Human-AI Communication
Justice Cheng
External Research Assist.,
Prev. Master's RA,
Faculty of Information,
University of Toronto
Operationalizing the Sense of Digital Ownership
Alumni
Senjuti Dutta
Ph.D. Student, Elect. Eng. & Computer Science, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Adaptive Intelligent Systems for Crowdwork Flexibility
Ashvanth Rathinavel
Mitacs Globalink Research Intern, 2023, Faculty of Information, UofT
The Role of Modality in Human-AI Conversation
Kusum Grandhi
Mitacs Globalink Research, 2022, Faculty of Information, UofT. Modality-Dependant Decision Effects of AI Explanations
Annie Tan
Undergrad. Research Assistant, Dept. of Computer Science, UofT.
Verbal Explanaitions in Human-AI Collaboration
Olha Liuba
Research Intern, 2023,
Faculty of Information, UofT
Supporting Equal Participation in Group Discussions
Kelly McConvey
Ph.D. Research Assistant,
Faculty of Information, UofT
Collaboration with AI Models in Education
Fatima Zohra
Master's Thesis Student, Faculty of Information, UofT.
Bias Identification and Mitigation in ML
Marianna Kovalova
Research Intern, 2023,
Faculty of Information, UofT
The Effects of Explanation Format on The Perceived Trustworthiness
Bill Than
NSERC USRA, BI student,
Faculty of Information, UofT
Engagement in Teleconferencing Classrooms During Covid-19
Sharon Ferguson
Ph.D. Research Assistant,
Mech.& Industrial Eng., UofT
AI Explanations in Collaborative Subjective Decision Making
M. Elkhechen
Research Assistant,
Faculty of Information, UofT
Psychological Ownership in Human-AI Collaboration
Mona Abou Swaid
Master's Research Assistant,
Faculty of Information, UofT
Sense of Ownership Over Digital Artifacts
Janna Cameron
Master's Research Assist.,Faculty of Information, UofT
Types of Trust in Human-AI Collaboration
Tanisha Amarakoon
Research Assistant,
Faculty of Information, UofT
Psychological Ownership in Human-AI Collaboration
Akriti Kaur
Master's Research Assistant,
Faculty of Information, UofT
Document Exploration Through Conversational Interfaces
Yaqing Yang
Mitacs Globalink Research Intern, 2023, Faculty of Information, UofT
Cross-Modality Alignment of Prompts for Art Generation
Hidaya Ismail
Research Assistant,
Faculty of Information, UofT
Psychological Ownership in Human-AI Collaboration
Mujgan Ozceylan
Master's Research Assistant, Reading Student, THAI RS'21
Faculty of Information, UofT
AI Explanations of Subtle Sexism
Nabila Chowdhury
PhD Research Assistant,
THAI RS'22, Faculty of Information, UofT
Promt-Based Bias in AI Generated Art
Juan Antonio Nelson
Research Assistant,
Faculty of Information, UofT
Speech Detection of Caribbean Dialects
Yihui Lu
Mitacs Globalink Research Intern, 2023, Faculty of Information, UofT
Conversational Agents for Psychological Therapy
Deepak Surya
Mitacs Globalink Intern, 2022, Faculty of Information, UofT. Text-to-Voice Conversation Style Transformation
Past Reading/Research Course Students:
Dakshata Shukla - Master's Reading Student, Faculty of Information, UofT. Health Agents For Women in Global South | S,F2023
Janna Cameron - Master's Reading Student, Faculty of Information, UofT. Types of Trust in Human-AI Collaboration | S,F2023
Omer Imran - Master's Reading Student, Faculty of Information, UofT. Bias Mitigation Techniques in ML | S,F2023
Amy Wang- Master's Reading Student, Faculty of Information, UofT. Attention Support Through Conversational Agent | S,F2023
Rimsha Rizvi - Master's Reading Student, Faculty of Information, UofT. Fairness and Explainability in Human-AI Collaboration | S2023
Fatima Zohra - Master's Reading Student, Faculty of Information, UofT. Accuracy Preserving Fairness Techniques for Financial Models| S2023
Anshuta Kulkarni - Master's Reading Student, Faculty of Information, UofT. Social Dynamics in Human-Agent Interaction | S2023
Janet Lu - Master's Reading Student, Faculty of Information, UofT. Conversational Agents for Co-Design Assistance | S2023
Kshitij Anand - Master's Reading Student, Faculty of Information, UofT. Conversation in Human-AI Collaborative Tasks | S2023
Batool Fatima - Master's Reading Student, Faculty of Information, UofT. Trust Mechanisms in Human-AI Collaboration | S2023
Lakshya - Master's Reading Student, Faculty of Information, UofT. Designing Human-AI Conversation | S2022
Mohammed Elkhechen - Master's Reading Student, Faculty of Information, UofT. Human-AI Teams | S2022
Lakshya - Master's Reading Student, Faculty of Information, UofT. Designing Human-AI Conversation | S2022
Shradha Anand - Master's Reading Student, Faculty of Information, UofT. Exploration of Documents Through Conversational Interfaces | S2022
Jinchi Lin - Master's Reading Student, Faculty of Information, UofT. Personalization of Disembodied Intelligent Agents | S2022
Lizhen Ying - Master's Reading Student, Faculty of Information, UofT. Anthropomorphization of Disembodied Agents | W2022
Paula Akemi - Master's Reading Student, Faculty of Information, UofT. Designing Technology for Older Adults | F2021
Manveer Kalirai - Master's Reading Student, Faculty of Information, UofT. The Adoption of Smart Home Technology in Everyday Use | S2021
Julia Gil - Undergrad Reading Student, Faculty of Information, UofT. User Communication with Conversational Agents | S2021
Ruijia Yang - Undergrad Reading Student, Computer Science, UofT. Simulation As a Research Method in HCI | W2021
Our Collaborators
Dr. Young-Ho Kim
Naver AI Lab,
South Korea
Dr. Khalad Hassan
Computer Science,
University of British Columbia, Canada
Dr. Alex Williams
Amazon Research,
USA
Dr. Ishtiaque Ahmed
Computer Science,
University of Toronto, Canada
Dr. Shion Guha
Faculty of Information,
University of Toronto, Canada
Dr. Tony Tang
School of Computer and Information Systems at the Singapore Management University, Singapore
Dr. Jessica Cauchard
Industrial Engineering and Management, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
Dr. Joseph J. Williams
Computer Science,
University of Toronto, Canada
Dr. Cosmin Munteanu
Systems Design Engineering,
University of Waterloo, Canada